Sixty three years ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy left his home in the Galilean city of Safed. His was a family of means. He studied in elementary school, and then came the naqba [calamity, namely, the founding of the State of Israel - ed.]. At night, his family left by foot from Tzfat, to the Jordan River, where they remained for a month.  Then they went to Damascus, and then to their relatives in Jordan, and then they settled in Damascus.  That child's story, like that of so many other Palestinians, is mine. This month, however, as we commemorate another year of our departure -- which we call the nakba, or catastrophe -- the Palestinian people have cause for hope: this September, at the United Nations General Assembly, we will request international recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1949 armistice lines and that our state be admitted as a full member of the United Nations. Many are questioning what value there is to such recognition while we continue to refuse...(Read Full Post)